The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (Extensions of Remarks - June 22, 2007)

The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2764) making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes:

* Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the McGovern-Lewis amendment. It is time to close the School of the Americas, or WHINSEC. After so many decades of human rights abuses and threats to democracy, the U.S. should not be giving a privileged position to Latin American militaries by maintaining a special school in the United States just for them. Nearly every month in Latin America, a perpetrator of human rights crimes, corruption, or drug-trafficking is found to have attended the School of the Americas. There's a reason that the SOA has been called the ``School of the Atrocities.''

* WHINSEC, as well as current U.S. foreign policies, are making the United States lose ground with the people of Latin America. Our relations with Latin America are at their lowest ebb in several decades. The Abu Ghraib scandal, the doctrine of preemptive war, secret prisons and the debate over detentions in Guantanamo Bay are reported widely and critically in Latin American media. I have traveled to Latin America and seen for myself that the WHINSEC, as the direct heir of the School of the Americas, is viewed throughout Latin America as a symbol of the U.S. priority of strengthening brutal military regimes instead of encouraging development.

* Suspending part of the aid to the WHINSEC would show that the United States wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Such a move would be a significant and positive step forward in repairing our damaged image and credibility. It would also be a blow to those who have strengthened themselves politically by accusing the United States of hypocrisy on human rights and democracy. A more cooperative, less unilateral foreign policy, including the suspension of funding for WHINSEC, will clearly demonstrate our respect for international human rights standards and would help the United States regain influence and build connections in Latin America.

* The United States should work with Latin American nations on common solutions to common problems, and our programs should invest in helping Latin American communities help themselves. Instead of providing funds to train human rights abusers, we should provide assistance for clean water, vaccinations for children, micro-credit, technical assistance for small farmers and small business, shelter for refugees and generous disaster relief to build goodwill with our neighbors.

* Just last month Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Oscar Arias, President of Costa Rica, announced that Costa Rica would no longer send its police to the WHINSEC for training. We should join Costa Rica (and other Latin American countries who have withdrawn their police from training at WHINSEC) in changing course by withdrawing funding from this criminal training ground.

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